  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 08/01/2016 Gr 5–8—Maggie's friendship with Allie and Emily is not the only thing coming to an end. This is the last year Odawahoka Middle School will be in existence, and this year's sixth grade is the final class. Classrooms have been shuttered, programs have been suspended, and labs have been locked up tight. As Maggie's old friends are finding different interests, new girl Lena appears. Lena is a self-possessed artist, into photography and the Dada movement. She is very un-Odawahoka, and she has decided that she is going to be Maggie's best friend. The problem is that Maggie is harboring some secrets and she needs to decide how much she is going to let Lena know; she's often the one left taking care of her cranky grandfather, her mom disappears into her room at night with a bottle in hand, Maggie is maintaining a secret website selling vintage autoparts, and there is her late father's Hacker Bible. Before he died, her father was a brilliant engineer who pulled off epic hacks with aplomb, and Maggie is determined to follow in his footsteps and make this last year at Odawahoka Middle School memorable for her classmates. As controlled chaos seems to reign beneath the crumbling roof of their middle school, both girls discover more about friendship, family, school spirit, and themselves than they imagined. VERDICT This pitch-perfect start to a new series captures the power dynamics between adults and children and allows for the realization that everyone has a story worth hearing.—Stacy Dillon, LREI, New York City - Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 10/15/2016 Two things happen to Maggie the morning seventh grade begins. First, she meets Lena, the new girl who will become her best friend. Next, a practical joke fills the middle-school hallway with happy chaos: tennis balls bouncing, toy cars zooming, helium balloons floating upward, and a toy mouse parachuting down. Soon, “The mouse is in the house!” becomes the students’ rallying cry as the autocratic new principal tries and fails to stop an escalating series of hacks. That’s hack in the MIT sense: to carry out elaborate, creative pranks with precision, secrecy, and flair. Best known for The Lemonade War (2007) and its sequels, Davies brings the same strong sense of narrative along with a well-drawn, small-town setting and a number of believable, sometimes quirky characters. Throughout the book, Lena’s artistic outlook complements Maggie’s engineering bent. An appended activities section includes such related features as “Why Maggie Loves Sir Isaac Newton” and “How to Make a Dada Poem.” A flying start for a new series. - Copyright 2016 Booklist. Loading...
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